# Apache Kafka integration

[Kafka](https://kafka.apache.org/) integrations enable you to automatically forward events that occur in Ably to Kafka topics.

<Aside data-type='note'>
If you want to send data from Kafka to Ably, you can use the [Ably Kafka Connector.](https://ably.com/docs/general/kafka-connector.md)
</Aside>

## Create a Kafka integration 

To create a Kafka integration in your [dashboard:](https://ably.com/dashboard/any)

1. Login and select the application you wish to integrate with Kafka.
2. Click the **Integrations** tab.
3. Click the **New Integration Rule** button.
4. Choose Firehose.
5. Choose Kafka.
6. Configure the Kafka [settings](#settings).
7. Click **Create**.

You can also create a Kafka integration using the [Control API](https://ably.com/docs/platform/account/control-api.md).


### Settings 

The following settings are available when creating a Kafka integration:

| Setting | Description |
| ------- | ----------- |
| [Source](https://ably.com/docs/platform/integrations/streaming.md#sources) | Specifies the event types being sent to Kafka. |
| [Channel filter](https://ably.com/docs/platform/integrations/streaming.md#filter) | Filters the source channels based on a regular expression. |
| Encoding | Specifies the encoding format of messages. Either JSON or MsgPack. |
| [Enveloped](https://ably.com/docs/platform/integrations/streaming.md#enveloped) | Checkbox to set whether messages should be enveloped or not. Enveloped is the default. |
| Routing key | Specifies the [routing key](https://ably.com/docs/messages.md#routing) used to route messages to Kafka topics. |
| Mechanism | The [SASL/SCRAM mechanism](#mechanism) used for Kafka connection. |
| Username | The username to connect to Kafka with. |
| Password | The password to connect to Kafka with. |
| Brokers | List of Kafka broker endpoints in the format `<host>:<port>`. |

### Authentication mechanism 

The available authentication mechanisms for Kafka are:

* [SASL/PLAIN](https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka/authentication_sasl/authentication_sasl_plain.html#kafka-sasl-auth-plain)
* [SASL/SCRAM-SHA-256](https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka/authentication_sasl/authentication_sasl_scram.html#kafka-sasl-auth-scram)
* [SASL/SCRAM-SHA-512](https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/kafka/authentication_sasl/authentication_sasl_scram.html)